Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #3 - Feb. 1980

I think this is one of my all-time favorite collections. Not only is the cover--by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Robert Smith (?), and Joe Orlando--a beautiful, simple, happy image--but it's a truly inspired collection of stories. You can tell real thought was put into this book.

Throughout the book are three Super Friends stories:"The Cosmic Hit Man", "Riddles and Rockets", and "The Monster Menace", allby E.Nelson Bridwell, the always-great Ramona Fradon, and Bob Smith. The SF book was always one of my favorites growing up--pure fun and adventure by a crack creative team.

Interspersed with those is the classic "Man--Thy Name is Brother" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Sid Greene, from Justice League of America #57, where Snapper Carr, Flash, Hawkman, and Green Arrow attempt to help some kids in their attempts to succeed in life. It's definitely an off-beat story, and while it's hardly subtle (the last line of the story: "What a world it will be when mankind is--kind to man!"), it's heart is in the right place and is the perfect kind of story for the kind of young kids reading The Super Friends.

The other story, the Teen Titans in "Eye of the Beholder", by Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, and Bill Draut, is a similarly heavy-handed "message" story, but it's still fun and well-intentioned, and is another great pick for this book.

And as if that wasn't enough, there's a one-page text piece about the history of DC heroes teaming up. No kid could've spent their 95 cents better than this!